I think these apartments are going in directly west of the townhome site. There is a stormwater prevention sign titled "Alliance MF" or something of the like right about where the western property line of those townhomes are going in...there was definitely clearing happening---but yeah, the photo mostly shows the townhome infrastructure now that I look at a map.

So, I think about this very topic a lot. I know I've bitched about in before on HAIF. I believe Houston has less litter than it did two decades ago. I can recall seeing trash swirling around the freeways in the 90s and 00s. I definitely see humans and trucks cleaning up litter on all the freeways regularly now. I travel around Texas a lot, and I think Houston Metro has some of the cleanest freeways in terms of litter.
I don't care what the City says, they do not have street sweepers going up and down the major roads. If they did, the trash and sandbars that have developed since 1989 would not exist.All that crap ends up clogging our drains and costing us more in the long run.
Now...the streetscapes are a whole other animal. Let's just not discuss the truly ridiculous amount of ditches in dense urban neighborhoods--that's an entire topic on it's own. IMO the City is reactive and relies on 311 way too much. One of my biggest pet peeves is fallen traffic signs and street lamps hit by vehicles. When citizens are forced to report everything, people just assume others will do it. I've tested this many times and left fallen signs alone--they are only reported a small fraction of the time. The City will fix them within 24 hours...they have people to do this...but if you don't report, I guess the employees just don't work. The plastic water meter lids are another streetscape issue that bothers me. Thousands float away after every flood event. Require a better design and the ankle-twisting danger and constant replacement cost vanishes. Other issues: our utility companies digging holes nearly daily--spray painting everything in sight. The street in front of my house is sprayed by AT&T about every month--maybe it has something to do with the redevelopment occurring...but it seems excessive. COM wires are hanging from poles everywhere and often bundled up and tied to trashy, crumbling poles. No one cares. I had to call the Public Utility Commission to get them to cut down some wires hanging in the street a few months back---after about a month of dealing with them all, only one of the three were removed. Comcast blames AT&T, AT&T blames Centerpoint, Centerpoint blames everyone but themselves. The little grass strip is part of the problem, but there are so many other elements that need attention.

Looks like the Admiral Linen facility (on 1.5+ blocks at Harvard/Center) is closing in January...just one block north of the new mixed use/H-E-B building at Buffalo Heights:
https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/11/02/linen-and-uniform-rental-co-to-close-houston.html

So. I am wondering if this plan fell through. Many months ago, work seemed to have started, but I haven’t noticed any activity in quite some time. Several adjacent small homes and businesses went up for sale recently. Another retail building is still mostly empty. I keep thinking this block has more potential.

Oh man hahaha, it took three years (2014-2016) to build that simple metal box they called La Roux. They opened with an expired liquor license and never had it renewed. TABC didn't even know they were operating in early 2017 from the sound of it. There was no sign. During the 2017 Superbowl, they taped up six black posterboards with the letters L A R O U X. The letters slowly fell to the ground. It was a literal trash dump---after a while, they stopped paying for trash service so heaps of garbage would pile up behind the metal box. Many 311 requests were made...soon after, a new owner bought the block; the 3-year-old box was swiftly demolished. The Saturday night gunshots stopped and were never heard again. So, yeah, dump da-da dump, dump, dump.

Along with this City-funded portion between Dickson and Washington, TIRZ #5 is planning the reconstruction of Durham and Shepherd between North Loop and 11th. Based on their current budget document, Shepherd is scheduled for construction in 2020 and Durham in 2022. That would leave the heavily traveled portion between 11th and Washington unplanned.
https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/tirzdocs/budgetsfy18/tirz5.pdf